Who knew a sinus problem could lead to a metaphor?
For the past year I’ve been fighting all sorts of chronic upper respiratory issues but this morning I woke up not only with a clear head but breathing more deeply than I have in years — and I mean deep, delicious, oxygen-pumping breaths that flooded my un-congested head and went all the way down to my toes. So this is what you non-allergy fighting folks breathe like every day!? Thanks to an otolaryngology specialist I now realize what I was missing.
But that’s not all, I slept solidly through the night. H-e-a-v-e-n!
The boost of oxygen also helped me illuminate a metaphor. When we have any type of blockage or congestion in our lives (physical, emotional, intellectual) it restricts us. When the blockage is removed everything works better. We have the energy and the freedom to push forward.
I’ve been looking for an appropriately relevant blog post to share an excerpt from Stephen Hawking’s introduction to his book, The Universe in a Nutshell, and this is it. He writes about time between 1988 and 2001 when his first book, A Brief History of Time was published — when “the ultimate Theory of Everything seemed to be just over the horizon.” He goes on to explain:
“…we have advanced a long way since then. But it is an ongoing journey still and the end is not yet in sight. According to the old saying, it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. Our quest for discovery fuels our creativity in all fields, not just science. If we reached the end of the line, the human spirit would shrivel and die. But I don’t think we will ever stand still: we shall increase in complexity, if not in depth, and shall always be the center of an expanding horizon of possibilities.”
How’s that for deep thinking? The possibilities for us are boundless.
Breathe deeply my friends.
: ) I think of the movie “The Secret Lives of Dentists” sometimes, where the woman with three kids says she thought her life would keep getting bigger and bigger, but really it got smaller and smaller. What a relief not to have that problem and have all these vistas before us. What a funny surprise, after all the heartache, to find out that what felt like the end of the world was really the beginning of a new universe!
I LOVE this outlook! It’s the one I’m trying to adopt, and mostly succeeding. :)
Definitely a great quote to share! I am with him on that one.
Bea